Had the chance to spend a coupla hours on this board this morning and just wanted to share my thoughts.

Firstly I am about 75kg, 185cm and probably an intermediate supper and fairly competent longboarder.

The surf - 2 foot A-frame beach break with absolutely clean and glassy conditions - perfect for supping, especially on a first outing on a new board.

Out of the water - nicely positioned carry handle and a nice weight to carry - not a super lightweight but not heavy either.. I set the board up as a 2 + 1 (has the quad option) with a fairly chunky 6.5 inch shaper centre and futures 425 sides. Centre fin I set a bit back from centre to make my first outing a bit more stable and a little bit tighter until I got a feel for it.

On the water - a tad wobbly at the start and paddling out but first thing I noticed was how well the board paddled and how quickly the wobbles disappeard with a bit of momentum. The board sits quite low in the water which seemed to make it very stable and easy to handle when kick turning and setting up for waves and when taking off from a standing start it seemed to take off very quickly and never had that all to common corkiness that so many modern sups have.
I started off on a few of the smaller ones to get a feel for the board and couldnt believe how easily the board paddled onto the smallest of waves and got to speed so quickly. I just went down the line on the first two to try to sus' out just how the board handled and how much speed it had to handle the shorebreak. I did honestly expect it to be a bit slow down the line due to the quite pronounced rocker on the board and thought it would be more of a board for bigger and more critical waves but I was pleasantly suprised at how it flew down the line and actually never once left me needing more speed or drive to outrun sections. By the third wave I was comfortably fading on takeoffs and getting 3 or 4 turns and a coupla cutties on most waves and just couldn't get the board to set a foot wrong. It was definately one of the most responsive sups I have ever ridden and probably up there with the best all-round surf sups I have surfed. By all-round surf sup I mean its a board that would grovel in 1-2ft slop as comfortably as it would handle the head high plus surf that it was obviously designed for (judging by its shape and rocker)
I haven't surfed sups much over the past few months so I was absolutely blown away by how well I handled this little performance sup and how much fun I had on it. It was one of the most enjoyable sup surfs I have ever had.

And for anyone thats interested:

Board Specifications
Dimensions: 9'2" x 29 ½" x 4 ¼"
Tail: Swallow
Fins: 5
Volume 125L

And the fin setup:





Oh yeah - sorry if I haven't gone into details on concaves and vees and rail shapes and all the high tech stuff but I don't even look at the bottom of boards other than when I put the fins in and and I gotta say I have never really been interested in that kinda stuff - I just ride them and if I can stand on them, paddle them and surf them and have a good time without falling off too much then its ticking all my boxes.
And just to be upfront - I borrowed this board off a mate who has a shop and the review is my idea because I really liked the board. I am borrowing a few different boards off him cos I cant afford a surfing sup at the moment so I will probably do a bit of a review on anything I particularly like so maybe someone who is a similar level of average surfer as me will get something out of it.

Knee's coming along thanks BB. Wasn't allowed to surf last weekend but did alot of paddling at the Roar demo day. All on flat water. Should be good for a surf this week.

Real lack of swell lately and I enjoy the SUP in these conditions. SUP at the moment is a C4 Sub Vector 9'3. It does everything I need it to for a board I will only take out in small/full conditions and I can still fit it in the car. (believe it or not this is a very improtant point for me in board selection).

I'm going to try Micky D's around Thur for the Munro but not confident and will pack the SUP as well.

I'm very close to getting a 12-14fter SUP for some fitness padlling and trying to do a longer race.

Cheers and thanks for the review, your are always a good read as I know there will be no spin

Hey eastcoast - just outta curiousity whats the heaviest person you have seen comfortably riding this board ? I reckon about 85kg would pull it up for an intermediate surfer, whaddya reckon ?

Ok 2 weeks on (yeah yeah I know I have to give it back) and I have to say I am really enjoying putting this thing on the car every coupla days. Geez I hadnt been surfing sups for several months until I borrowed this board but I have actually been walking past the mal on occasions and going for a sup instead cos I am just blown away by how much fun the lsd is. I have actually had it in some bigger, fatter surf and it was really solid under foot but its in waist high and smaller super fast beachies where this board just puts the biggest smile on my face every time. It is sooooooooooooooo fast and it has an uncanny ability to just do exactly what you ask of it exactly when you ask it. You can be screaming down the line racing a section then just weight up the back foot, stall it into a quick cuttie, climb the foam, cutback weight up the front foot and bang !! off you go again - no effort and so much response. Admittedly I am still a tad wobbly on it in sloppy conditions - I dont fall off but look like a bit of a pelican at times - but I reckon 2weeks on it every coupla days and I would have it nailed. Even took the dog for a paddle on it yesterday and as hard as she tried she couldnt shake us off (although we got bloody close a few times) I am not looking forward to handing this one back this week

Eastcoast SUP said...

Good to see you've put some hours into it, billboard...

billboard said...

Hey eastcoast - just outta curiousity whats the heaviest person you have seen comfortably riding this board ? I reckon about 85kg would pull it up for an intermediate surfer, whaddya reckon ?

The heaviest person I have seen ride is probably 95kgs but they were more than intermediate.

I reckon they would need to be hey. As hard as it is to give this board back I am actually looking forward to comparing some other boards to it now that I have a bit of a benchmark in what I consider to be a good performance board that is still good for everyday use. I am hoping to try something with just a half a tad more stability/volume to see whether it loses that special edge I have found with the lsd. Its hard though cos if the board was mine I reckon it would just become so comfortable with a bit more time on it - but nothing wrong with a bit of experimentation. I have tried a couple of boards under 9ft but for me thats just too short and I would prefer the paddle and comfort of a 9+ board over the alleged performance improvement of a sub 9 sup. Having said that though I haven't yet ridden anything under 9 that comes even close to the lsd or my old 9.0 Laguna Bay for performance so far. Think I will have to slowly work my way through scottys demo fleet and see if anything can top the luke. I do really like the look of the new Merrick 9 and 9.7 but I gotta come up with $1750 to demo one Gunna be a fun summer testing some great boards.

green menace said...

Husq how is the 8'8 ?, have you ridden the 9.2 ?, can you give a comparison , that would be great. Tossing up between the 2 .

Im liking the 8.8. I was riding a Chriss Garrett 9.0 before that. I havent ridden the 9.2 or any other LSD boards. If your on the goldie go see scott at greenline, last time I was there he had a 8.8 that was inbetween the old series (like mine) and the new current series. It looks the same as the new but, the tail is not as wide and its only set up for thruster not 5 fin.....He would probably do a good deal on it???

there is also a limited edition run of an LSD 8'10 which is a scaled down version of the 9'2.

How is the rolled deck?

standupper said...

green menace said...

How is the rolled deck?

I have an 8'6 LSD and found the rolled deck hard to get used to at first, but now the board has hollows where I stand so its kind of flat now. I was initially quite worried at how easily it dented but overall the construction seems strong. No paint chips or rail dings after a fair bit of use. Just compressions on the top and bottom.

Is it just the shorter models that have a rolled deck ? I honestly didn't notice any roll on the deck of the 9.2 so it can't have had very much if any.